Typical clustering-based computer usually uses a dedicated network interface for the clustering switch and needs to switch between Gigabit Ethernet, InfiniBand, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and etc. Some flexible clustering system such as Sun Blade 8000 series, product of Sun Microsystems, Inc., has a flexible partitioning for the clustering switch and the network interfaces. However, the assigned physical space is very small and need a completely different design to support different network interfaces.
In a typical clustering system that has multiple 1 U-blade computation nodes, Network Interface Controller (NIC) is usually configured on a mother board as a part of the computation node. And each of the computation nodes is provided with at least one network interface to connect with a centralized network switch module in the clustering system. The actual interconnections between the network interface controllers and the network switch module may be cables or PCB (printed circuit board) such as backplane, middle plane or other PCB-based interconnection.
FIG. 1 shows one of typical implementations of a clustering system. The system includes a clustering network switch, interconnection mean(s) (such as cables or PCB), a head node and four computation nodes. Each node is embedded with a dedicated NIC. In this implementation, the NIC is a part of every computation node and usually effects computation density. However, to achieve a compact design, physically each computation node can not allow enough space for multiple network interfaces (including the network interface controller and its corresponding connector). Namely, each node uses only one type of network interfaces and the clustering network switch will handle all the network switching tasks. Therefore, to facilitate network switching operation between different network interfaces (such as Gigabit Ethernet, InfiniBand, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and etc.) in the clustering system usually requires different system designs.
Some other flexible implementation such as Sun Blade 8000 series, routes system I/O (Input/Output) interface (ex. a PCI Express link) to a module called “Network Express Module” (NEM). However, the allocated physical space is skinny and the implementation on the NEM module is very limited. Based on the given space, most of network interface design needs to be configured on-board together on each node. Then, if the system changes to use different network interface, the whole module needs to be redesigned.
The aforesaid typical implementation includes the following disadvantages: (1) Most of system design is optimized for a single type network interface; (2) Network interface design in some implementations has serious dependency of the computation node design; (3) even if a clustering system has flexible partitioning capability, the allocated physical space is not enough to support multiple network interfaces.